


Speak Soft, Noise Boys.

by boyonthebluemoon



Category: As It Is (Band), Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Band Fic, Best Friends, Cute, Fluff, Gen, One Shot, Short, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-04 19:36:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21202952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyonthebluemoon/pseuds/boyonthebluemoon
Summary: Awsten Knight is always brave, loudmouthed, confident, and ready with a sarcastic quip, no matter the situation. But he's also got a secret fear, and Patty's about to find it out.





	Speak Soft, Noise Boys.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AwstensGuitar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwstensGuitar/gifts).

It had been quite some time since Patty had finished tidying up his room, and now he was feeling quite impatient.

He wanted to be done with his work early, but as usual, it seemed like that wouldn't be the case at all. Instead, he ended up nervously pacing around his room and having an endless staring contest with his watch, wondering if his guest will ever show up.

When he finally heard the doorbell ring, he quickly bounded downstairs to get it and was greeted with the familiar grinning face of his green-haired best friend.

"Yo, Patty."

"Hey Awsten. As usual, you're just in time," Patty smiled back wanly, "about twenty-three minutes ago."

Awsten didn't seem too concerned with his tardiness, and he fully knew well that Patty didn't either. "Eh, I'm here now, so don't sweat it. Isn't there like some sort of parable or whatever you call it about better being late than never showing up or some shit like that?"

"I think that's called a proverb."

"Yeah, that thing, whatever." Awsten shrugged. "Save the teaching for later, Mr. Walters."

Patty scowled at him. "Disrespect me like that again in my own household and I'm leaving you to flunk your entire math class for all eternity."

Awsten simply smirked at his annoyance. "You and I both know you won't ever allow me to do that."

"Alright, alright." Patty sighed, raising up his hands in defeat. "Just come inside before your dumb ass starts freezing out there from making jokes at my expense."

"Don't mind if I do." Awsten replied as he went past the doorway and kicked his sneakers off unceremoniously. Once inside, he looked around the place several times, as if sensing something amiss.

"Hm. Place is kinda quiet." He concluded, his loud voice echoing throughout the empty halls of the house. "Where's the rest of your family?"

"Well, mom's out buying groceries, dad's still in his office, and I think Rachel has some practice for a club event at her school or something like that, so we pretty much got the place all to ourselves." Patty explained as they went up the stairs and proceeded to his room.

"Oh, cool. Hey, you wanna drink some chill lemonade and play video games instead of doing some boring homework?"

"Maybe later, after we finish the boring homework." Patty paused to think before adding, "I'm totally down for the chill lemonade though."

Awsten snorted derisively. "Boooo, stop being a vampire dude, 'cause right now you totally suck!"

"You also want me to drink your blood like it's lemonade?" Patty shot back.

"Okay, that's just disgusting. Catchy, but really disgusting." Awsten stuck out his tongue at Patty. "Anyway, you're probably just scared I'll beat your ass in Mario Kart again."

"Did you get that from Geoff?"

"No, he got it from me."

\---

Patty and Awsten had barely cracked open their science textbooks, when all the lights in the house suddenly turned off, and they both found themselves plunged into total darkness.

"Shit!" Awsten swore sharply. Patty fumbled for his phone and used the dull glow from its screen to illuminate their surroundings.

Turning to Awsten, he asked "Hey, are you alright?"

Against the dim light and stark contrasting shadows, Awsten looked feverishly pale and downright apprehensive. But he only slowly nodded in reply as he swallowed back another stream of frustrated curses from his mouth. "Yeah, I'm all g—it's all good. Just uh, got a little surprised, is all."

"The weather must've knocked off some of the electrical wires outside." Patty surmised thoughtfully. "You stay here, and I'm going to go look for a better flashlight, or a candle and some matches maybe. I think we have some of those stocked under the kitchen cabinets."

But as Patty stood up to begin his search, Awsten immediately grabbed on to his arm and held it tightly, hands palpably clammy and trembling. Patty was greatly taken aback by his strange reaction.

"**No!**" Awsten shouted agitatedly, before his voice consciously dropped down to a shaky whisper. "Sorry, I mean...don't—don't leave me here. _Please_."

"Awsten...?" Patty murmured worriedly, unsure how to take the situation. He was always used to seeing the funny, confident, happy-go-lucky kid who was never scared and never backed down to take on anything thrown his way. But he had never seen this fragile, vulnerable side of Awsten before, in all his three years of knowing him.

Seeing his best friend completely helpless like this unnerved him a lot, he had to admit. He didn't know what else to do.

So Patty sat back down, hesitated for a moment or two, and finally settled to draping a reassuring arm over Awsten, who initially winced uncomfortably at his awkward hold but said nothing about it.

"Aws, hey." Patty spoke softly, silently hoping that his own words were going to help calm Awsten down. "It's alright."

"No, no it's freaking not." Awsten grumbled bitterly, still slightly shivering from his initial panic. "I'm scared of the dark and it's stupid and childish and I really hate it but I can't do jack about it. There, I said it. And now you know about my deepest darkest pathetic-est secret. So go ahead, laugh at me or whatever."

"I would never laugh at you, ever. Especially not because of that." Patty consoled him gently. "And I'll never tell a soul."

Awsten gazed at him seriously, his mismatched eyes flickering doubtfully in the darkness. "You promise?"

"I promise."

"Promise, promise, on macaroni and cheese?"

"Awsten—"

"Go on. Say it."

Patty quietly sighed. "Promise, promise, on macaroni and cheese."

"Alright..." Awsten closed his eyes and heaved a appeased sigh. "Thank you."

Patty smiled reassuringly, glad that Awsten was beginning to compose himself. "Not a problem. I mean, everyone has their fears. I have lots of fears too, probably more than you'll ever have, and a lot of them are just really weird and irrational." He began counting off from his fingers. "Let's see...I'm scared of spiders. And heights. And our damp, musty basement. And the awful ringing sound of alarm clocks on weekend mornings."

The terrified look still lingering from Awsten's visage faded a bit as he chuckled quietly at Patty's joke.

"And well...I've never really told anyone this as well, but you know what I'm scared of the most?"

Awsten gave him a curious look, silently prompting him to go on. Patty closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath before he continued.

"Porcupines." He revealed with a shameful sigh. "I don't know why, but just really don't like those creatures all that much."

Awsten's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets upon hearing that fact. "What? No way!"

Patty scoffed in relief. "Yeah, it's really dumb, isn't it? There's absolutely no reason of me to be scared of them at all. But they're all teeth and fur and spikes and it's like an actual living pincushion and I also hate needles a lot, ugh."

Awsten broke into bright laughter at Patty's grimacing face, already having forgotten about their initial awkward situation. "But they're really adorable though?? I probably want like ten of them as pets when I'm older. And then I'll name one after you, and then you'll have to accept the fact that Patty Jr. the porcupine is going to be stuck with you...forever! Well, not literally. Unless you accidentally sit on it or something. That would hurt a lot. That would also be animal abuse. You could go to jail for that. Don't sit on your pets."

"You're so weird, Awsten." Patty replied, an amused smile playing faintly on his lips.

"Shut up, normie." Awsten retorted, the sting of his snarky words taken away by a mischievous wink.

At that moment, all the lights in the room flickered back on in an almost-blinding glare, startling them both.

"Hey, the electricity's back!" Patty cheered.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"It wasn't a serious problem after all, thankfully." Patty said. "Maybe it was just repairs and all that stuff." He glanced at Awsten with quiet concern. "Seriously, are you gonna be okay now?"

"Nah, don't fret about that too much." Awsten waved him off airily, already back to his usual self. "On the contrary, just completely forgot that it ever happened, and we'll be cool."

"Not a chance." Patty couldn't resist teasing him one last time. "I'm just kidding. It's already forgotten."

"To be honest with you though, I'm really glad I got that out somewhere." Awsten confessed, his cheeks tinged slightly pink. "Like, I know I'm supposed to be embarrassed about it and stuff, but I don't know, I just...trust you, I guess. I don't know. It's whatever." He shook his head dismissively and quickly turned away, trying to hide his flustered face.

For his part, Patty pretended not to notice. "Yeah, me too." He simply nodded in agreement. "At least this way, we have a dark secret for a dark secret. Quid pro quo."

"Oh, uh.......hola?" Awsten hedged.

"Okay, we also clearly need to work on your Latin."

Awsten groaned loudly as he playfully shoved Patty away. "Don't get all on my case like that, or else I'll tweet out your secret for everyone to see and tag literally everyone we know in it."

"You little blackmailing dork." Patty rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Don't forget, I also have a secret about you that I could tell the entire world anytime I want to."

"Yeah, but you won't ever tell anyone about that, even if I did the same." Awsten challenged him. "I know you won't."

Patty laughed. "You know me too well."

"So...Mario Kart?" Awsten offered, staring his friend down with his signature innocent puppy dog look.

"Ah, hell, what's one round." Patty hung his head and finally gave in. "But...on one condition." He continued, abruptly stopping Awsten in his tracks.

"If you lose, you're doing your entire English essay alone without me to edit it." Patty smirked smugly. "Think you're up for that, shadow boy?"

Awsten stuck out a confident arm and, taking Patty by the hand, he started dragging his best friend along to the game room, already grinning that usual crazy grin of his.

"You're on, prick."


End file.
